An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Volume 2: An Account Of The English Colony In New South Wales, From Its First Settlement In 1788, To August 1801: With Remarks On The Dispositions, Customs, Manners, Etc. Of The Native Inhabitants Of That Country. To Which Are Added, Some Particulars Of New Zealand; Compiled, By Permission, From The Mss. Of Lieutenant-Governor King; And An Account Of The Voyage Performed By Captain Flinders And Mr. Bass.Collins, David
History
An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Volume 2: An Account Of The English Colony In New South Wales, From Its First Settlement In 1788, To August 1801: With Remarks On The Dispositions, Customs, Manners, Etc. Of The Native Inhabitants Of That Country. To Which Are Added, Some Particulars Of New Zealand; Compiled, By Permission, From The Mss. Of Lieutenant-Governor King; And An Account Of The Voyage Performed By Captain Flinders And Mr. Bass.
Collins, David
New South Wales -- Description and travel
The three persons who had been sent out with the Irishmen, that were so
desirous of discovering a country wherein they might live more at their
ease, returned on the 9th, so much exhausted with fatigue that two of
them were scarcely able to move when they arrived. Wilson, who was the
third, having been longer in the habit of travelling through the woods,
kept up their spirits, and thereby enabled them to reach Prospect Hill
about sunset; where, from long abstinence, having had nothing to support
them for several days, except two or three small birds, the refreshment
which they procured had nearly overcome them. Such were the difficulties
attending excursions in the interior of this country. With Wilson, who
knew much of the country, and was well qualified to conduct the party,
the governor sent a lad, a free servant of his, who was capable of giving
an account of the occurrences of the journey; and from him the following
particulars were collected:
From Mount Hunter (which was the highest land then known in that part of
the country, and distant from the township of Parramatta from about 30 to
34 miles in a SW direction) they took their departure on the 24th of last
month, travelling in a SSW course for 18 miles, 12 of which laid through
a fine open country. There they fell in with the river Nepean, which was
found winding to the southward and westward, close behind the cow pasture
plains. The banks of the river being at this place exceedingly steep and
rocky, they had some difficulty in getting across. On the other side the
ground wore a barren, unpromising appearance; and during the day they saw
only a few kangaroos of a particular kind, having long, black, and brushy
tails; with a few birds, which from the length of the tail feathers, they
denominated pheasants.
On the 25th they continued in their course, SSW for six miles, through a
country in general open, and apparently of a good black soil. In the
course of the day they saw many kangaroos and several emus; and fell in
with a party of natives, one of whom engaged to accompany them, on
condition of their halting for that night where they then were.
Consenting to this, they had leisure to examine a hill in that
neighbourhood, the face of which appeared white, and proved to be an
immense cliff of salt, a specimen of which they brought in.
On the 26th, they determined to incline more to the westward, and
travelled 16 miles in a direction WSW over a rocky country, covered with
brush wood, and a prickly kind of vine. They did not meet with any
natives; and that animals existed there, they only saw by their faeces.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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